In the field of medicine, patient misidentification is a significant problem that often results in harm to patients, particularly in hospital environments where there are various procedures and treatments that patients undergo, and many different areas within each hospital. For example, misidentification can lead to one patient being harmed by missing out on needed treatment, while another patient unnecessarily gets the treatment instead, which may be potentially harmful to that patient.
One estimate is that as high as thirty percent of errors in medicine are due to patient identity errors. Any technology that reduces such errors is highly desirable.